CBI and 50 years of ITB Berlin: How it all began
The world's leading travel trade show is celebrating its anniversary with 50 trips around the world.
50 years ITB Berlin: After its start by Dr. Manfred Busche in a small setting in 1966, ITB Berlin quickly developed into a global success. Since then, the name "ITB Berlin" stands for growth, expertise and internationality. ITB is the world’s leading travel trade show. The history of ITB Berlin is closely connected to the history of international tourism.
The figures for 2016 are impressive:
- 5 continents
- > 185 counties
- > 850 top buyers
- > 10.000 exhibitors
- > 23.000 congress visitors
- > 50.000 private visitors (consumers)
- > 115.000 trade visitors
There are 2 real international tourism fairs in the world, ITB Berlin and WTM London, which means that companies can get access to any markets in the world, and are not restricted only to the German or British market. All the other fairs mostly cover the national markets only.
ITB and WTM turned out to be the most important fairs for ECP companies. Many do the combination and have created a great network of customers giving them a lot of EU business after a couple of years.
This year 78 ECP companies will participate at their national stands at ITB. The CBI stand in Hall 26 will be used for a number of meetings and is also the base for some companies that could not be part of a national stand.
